Books: Temptations to Kill

Linda Wolfe: The Murder of Dr. Chapman - The Legendary
Trials of Lucretia Chapman and Her Lover

By Joel Kasow

NEW YORK, 5
March 2004Is it a confession of ignorance on my part to say that
I had never heard of either Lucretia Chapman or her lover, Lino Espos y Mina,
before reading Linda Wolfe's reconstruction of a notable murder in Bucks
County, Pennsylvania in the early 1830s. Using contemporary accounts, Ms. Wolfe
says that she has not invented the dialogue, though she may occasionally add
her own gloss. Until now, the last word has always fallen to Lino, whose memoir
postdates any comment by Lucretia Chapman who in fact faded into oblivion,
going on the stage without much success and following other careers before her
death in 1843. It is clear that Ms. Wolfe's sympathies lie with Lucretia who
she believes innocent, the entire blame falling on the Cuban con man who seems
constitutionally unable to tell the truth.

Backtracking, Lucretia was a
moderately educated woman who seemed destined to be a spinster until she
attracted the attention of Dr. Chapman, known at the time for his treatment of
those who stammered. Together they established a school in the Bucks County
town of Andalusia. All goes well until Lino turns up on their doorstep, a
weary, penniless traveler, who is taken in. It does not take long before a
complicity between him and Lucretia is established. He is treated as one of the
family, with Lucretia obnubilated by the expectation of the sums of money he
claims to possess. From the evidence presented at each of their trials, it is
clear that he purchased the arsenic that poisoned Dr. Chapman, but it
nonetheless remains unclear as to who was responsible for administering it.

Ms. Wolfe tells a good story, holding our attention through the trials
that acquit Lucretia but condemn Lino to death by hanging. At the same time,
she is not sparing in her social commentary while providing us the context in
which contemporary social attitudes were rooted.

The Murder of Dr. Chapman
The Legendary Trials of Lucretia Chapman and Her Loverby
Linda Wolfe Hardcover: 288 pages HarperCollins, New York, January
2004ISBN: 0060196238 $23.95

Joel Kasow is a senior editor and
member of the editorial board of Culturekiosque.com